Chapter 33

As the sun moved westward, the air atop the city walls grew colder. A gust of wind carried the stench of blood from a short distance, further darkening the atmosphere.

There is no such thing as an overseer in this game. Two players acting as soldiers were lying on the huge stone bricks, bored to death.

As the daily mission drew to a close, one player perked up, stood up, and looked toward the long black dragon lying across the wasteland in the distance.

It was a scrapped train.

He sighed.

I logged off early last night and went to bed early. When I woke up today, I was shocked to hear that a high-level quest had popped up near Zhongxu. It's a shame I missed it.

Didn't even get to drink the soup.

The system seemed to be very deliberate and did not assign him the regular security patrol mission. Instead, it sent him to this remote place where he could just see the deserted accident scene.

Rubbing salt into the wound.

Fortunately, he wasn't the only one suffering from this misfortune. His companions on the wall were from the same division but different squads; they had met before and were barely familiar faces.

"It's time." He stretched, turned around, and paused.

He patted his companion's shoulder and said, "Hey, when we came here this morning, were there any houses there?"

The companion glanced back and said lazily, "How should I know? Ask the person who handed over the shift this morning."

"No one was on duty this morning. Did you forget?" His attention was diverted. "The guys who were on guard here last night, you say they were lucky, they were lucky, they got there right after the ghoul wave broke out. You say they were unlucky, they were unlucky, they both died. Boom—"

His clenched fist suddenly opened. "All of their souls have been devoured by ghouls. They are completely offline."

"Then I'd rather have that opportunity fall upon me!" his companion said unwillingly, "Did you see the mission details posted on the forum? The cumulative number of ghouls has exceeded a thousand! With such a large wave of ghouls, how much experience can we gain just by looking at it?!"

"If we were just a little more careful, we could easily raise our level to Silver. Why would we bother with this tedious routine?"

They both sighed at the same time.

As a faction player with a guild status, anyone below Silver level needs to complete daily quests. One quest can take up most of the day, and the reward is only a small amount of experience and gold provided by the system.

As for destiny value, it is not increased at all.

"Forget it, don't mention it. If you missed it, you missed it."

Without waiting for their relief, the two of them climbed up the rope ladder as soon as the time came. Using their mobility skills, they rushed all the way back to Zhongsu Town.

*

An Rou was completely unaware that the farm had luckily avoided the inquiring gaze of a soldier.

But she didn't rely on pure luck.

After careful consideration, An Rou reluctantly gave up her plan to build a luxurious villa. Of course, with all the money she had, sleeping in a leaky thatched house was out of the question. She directed Paopao to use the plasticity of everyday props to build a bungalow on the spot.

At this moment, An Rou stood in front of the gate, looking at the house with bare blue bricks, and was glad that she was not blinded by wealth.

I thought that with double the raw materials, 100,000 gold coins would be enough to build a house. After all, 100,000 gold coins is equivalent to 500,000 in the real world, and since I don't have to buy land or lay a foundation, it should be more than enough to build two houses, right?

No, she had greatly underestimated the price of building materials in Soul Realm.

It costs 100 gold to change the material, shape and size of an ordinary stone into a complete blue brick!

Copying another identical blue brick will be cheaper, but it will still cost 50 gold.

Cement is even worse. It costs 120 gold to transform ordinary soil dug from the wasteland into cement. If you copy it, you can get 240 gold per kilogram of cement.

How many bricks and kilograms of cement are needed to build a house?

Just thinking about it made An Rou feel a chill down her spine.

The level of krypton gold in this game is so terrifying!

While An Rou was hesitating, Paopao was showing off some obscure knowledge he had learned from some beginner's guide.

"The Soul Realm is set in the apocalypse, and technology is hundreds of years behind reality. While productivity can barely meet daily needs, large-scale projects are difficult. Brickyards, cement plants, and steel mills—there aren't many in the four major factions."

"Over the years, the buildings in the four major factions, aside from the core urban areas, haven't changed much. They're still the same as they were when the dungeon was launched."

"Thankfully, there's a mechanism called game qualifications that keeps the number of players in each period within a reasonable range. Lengbing City occupies the largest area and has the most players, nearly 4 million."

"However...someone has revealed the Holographic Command Center's predictions. As more and more players log off completely, the birth rate continues to decline. In two years, there will be fewer and fewer adults eligible to play the game, and many houses will be vacant."

"So, building a house is something that few people would do. Even if they go to a factory to purchase building materials, the cost is too high..."

An Rou shook her head vigorously and glared at him: "As an employee, are you questioning the company's strategy?"

"...I'm just being realistic." Paopao answered honestly.

"Cover!" An Rou said firmly.

She wished that half of the existing players would log off immediately, so that even if they didn't build a farm, she could use the money she had and take An Younian to a secluded place to live the life of a wealthy woman.

But two years!

She couldn't wait two years.

In this crappy game, a lot of accidents can happen in two days.

"Let's make a model first." An Rou said.

Cut a few bricks and tiles, mix a pound of cement, and get some necessary wood, and everything is ready.

An Rou has lived on a farm for five years and played mahjong for five years. She thinks she has zero hands-on ability, so the heavy responsibility naturally falls on Paopao.

Paopao was so nervous that he was sweating. After a lot of effort, he finally made a model according to Anrou's description. I have to say, although it is not simple, it is much simpler than using software to draw 3D pictures.

The model is only the first step.

The real test of the quality of a house is the process of making the model bigger.

10 square meters, 20 square meters, 40 square meters...

With handfuls of gold coins thrown down, the house model, which was only the size of two palms, grew step by step and finally stopped at an area of ​​80 square meters.

It cost 500,000 gold coins, and it was just the shell of a house.

An Rou knocked on the wall carefully, fearing that she would accidentally knock the house down.

The thin walls made a terrifying hollow sound.

If I had known earlier, I would have built a mud house using local materials. Not only would it save money, it would also be safer...

An Rou felt a little regretful.

"Boss, we can spend money to reinforce it later..." Paopao was afraid of being scolded, but on the other hand he couldn't help but comfort him.

It was so much money that even his employees felt sad when they saw it.

An Rou frowned, and decided to go all out, kicking the wall hard.

——It’s okay. Apart from the scary noise, there is no sign of collapse.

500,000 gold can't be thrown away casually, so just make do with it.

The two of them moved in some furniture that they had dug out of the thatched house. An Rou was reluctant to spend money on upgrading, so she just asked Paopao to repair it appropriately as long as it could be used.

After an afternoon of hard work, it finally looked somewhat familiar.

The entrance leads to a central hall with a square table and two chairs. On either side are bedrooms, each with a single bed, a simple wardrobe, and a square stool serving as a bedside table.

The kitchen is on the left side of the main door. Finally, it's no longer an open-air earthen stove. It's separated from the dining room by a door. In the dining room is a replica set of square tables and wooden chairs.

The bathroom is on the right, symmetrical with the kitchen, but the door is opened in a different direction to prevent people from seeing what's inside while eating.

In this technologically backward age, forget about dreaming about private bathrooms and flush toilets. Having an old-fashioned, clean wooden toilet instead of squatting in a stinking, dry toilet is good enough.

An Rou walked around the new house twice and was so engrossed that she forgot about Paopao for a moment.

Until Paopao had to remind him: "Boss?"

An Rou turned around.

A trace of trance flashed across Paopao's eyes.

It was the first time he saw such a gentle smile on An Rou's face.

He is no longer the capitalist who orders his employees around, nor is he the evil spirit who wears a delicate fake smile but stabs a dagger into the player's heart without mercy.

Just like the simple girl you meet on the street in real life.

"The layout of this house is based on the house in my grandmother's hometown." An Rou was still recalling the past. "I went there every year when I was a child. There was also an apricot tree in the yard. When summer vacation came, the apricots were ripe. They were bright yellow, beautiful and delicious. - It's right here."

Paopao wanted to say something, but after hearing this, he swallowed the words.

It is true that Soul Song is a monster-killing game, but its realistic holographic technology and NPC favorability gameplay have also spawned a group of players who do not aim to kill monsters for rewards.

They come to the Soul World often to commemorate certain things and some people.

"Is the boss from the north?" Paopao asked.

The structural layout of this bungalow is rare in the south and is more like a country yard in the north.

An Rou shook her head: "No, my dad is studying and working..."

She suddenly stopped talking and didn't say anything else.

My thoughts were suddenly pulled back from the distant real memories to the virtual game world.

An Rouqing couldn't help feeling a little sad.

Her parents were no longer alive, and her grandmother had also passed away long ago. Now, in that real world, just like the soul world, she had no relatives at all.

Except for one accident—An Younian.

Having to live alone at such a young age, An Rou had already learned to hide her emotions very well. In a few seconds, she suppressed her sadness deep in her heart and looked at Paopao with a smile.

"Did you have something to say?" she asked, glancing at the sky. "Want to log off?"

Paopao scratched his head, feeling a little embarrassed: "I haven't been offline for two days and one night."

He wanted to log off after returning to the farm last night, but the situation was uncertain at the time and he didn't dare to say it.

"Sure." An Rou answered straightforwardly.

She was transformed into an NPC and couldn't leave the game, but Paopao was a normal player, and she couldn't let him stay in the holographic cabin day and night.

"The room on the right after entering the door is for you. You can use it as a staff dormitory." An Rou added, changing the subject, "But before you leave, let me discuss your salary first."

"treatment?"

Paopao couldn't help but glance at his balance.

Even among the lower-tier players, he was a pauper. After all, renting a holographic cabin was quite a bit of money. Most of the 500 gold in his account had been given by Qin Wudi.

But now, he has a balance of more than 4,000, plus some miscellaneous props, and a red bone burial shovel given to him by An Rou.

——All this was gained in just two days with An Rou.

He didn't know how many times he had secretly rejoiced, and he never thought that the boss would still pay him?

Paopao's eyes immediately lit up.

An Rou smiled: "Don't get me wrong, I won't pay you a salary. To be more precise, I won't pay you a fixed salary. Although we are superiors and subordinates, you are the only employee on the farm now. In the future, you will be at the veteran level. So -"

"I'm going to make you a partner."

Young people can't stand promises made in a rosy way, let alone those little kids who haven't even gone to college.

Paopao's eyes became brighter and brighter, and his expression was full of joy.

"Of course, I'm the founder, and I have the final say on all matters concerning the farm. As for your salary, I'll give you half of the farm's future profits, after deducting necessary costs."

"Halfway?" Paopao had no idea what this description meant. "Half?!"

"You're dreaming!" An Rou scolded with a smile, "It's 5%!"

“Ohhhh!”

I wasn't disappointed at all. 5% is a lot!

Take the mountain of gold that was spit out by the sudden wealth as an example. Multiply it by 5%, and it would be at least tens of thousands of gold!

He can gain experience and earn so much money. Where can he, a bronze player, find such a good thing?

The more Paopao thought about it, the more moved he became, and suddenly, he burst into tears.

An Rou had no idea what he was thinking. She was stunned when she saw this. She thought he thought it was too little and was about to give him one or two more points, but unexpectedly, Paopao rushed over and wanted to hug her.

Fortunately, she dodged quickly.

He ran but missed and fell flat on his face. He looked up with his eyes covered in dust and tears.

"Boss, I will definitely work hard and won't let you down!"